HandyMute

A tiny Windows tray app for people who dictate with Handy (push-to-talk speech-to-text on Ctrl+Space) while in a call.

When you hold Ctrl+Space to dictate, you don't want your teammates on Teams/Zoom/Discord to hear you talking to your computer — but Handy still needs the mic. HandyMute solves that:

While Ctrl+Space is held:

• 🔇 Your teammates hear silence (or a quiet level you choose) — Handy still gets full mic
• 🔉 All your other audio dims (the call, music, a YouTube video) so you can hear yourself dictate
• ✅ Everything restores instantly when you let go

It lives in the system tray as a microphone icon that glows green while you're talking, with an iPhone-style Control Center panel for the settings.

Status: Windows 10/11 (x64) and Linux (X11, PulseAudio/PipeWire).

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Install

Download HandyMute-Setup.exe from the Releases page and run it. The installer:

1. Installs HandyMute to C:\Program Files\HandyMute
2. Downloads & installs VB-CABLE if you don't already have it (a free virtual audio device — see How it works)
3. Auto-configures the microphone routing for you (no Sound-settings fiddling)
4. Enables start-at-login and adds a tray icon

The one manual step

The installer can't set your meeting app's microphone for you (apps store that internally). After install, set it once:

App	Where	Set to
Microsoft Teams	Settings → Devices → Microphone	CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)
Zoom	Settings → Audio → Microphone	CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)
Discord	Settings → Voice & Video → Input Device	CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable)

Leave Handy (and any other dictation tool) on your real microphone.

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Usage

Hold Ctrl+Space to dictate, as usual. Click the tray microphone to open the Control Center:

• Enabled — master on/off (when off, Ctrl+Space passes straight through to Handy)
• Teammates hear me at — 0% (silent) up to 100%, with quick Mute me / Quiet / Full volume buttons
• My volume while dictating — how far all your output dims while held
• Theme — dark / light
• Start at login

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How it works

One physical mic can't feed Handy and your call app with opposite needs during the hold, so the two are separated with a virtual audio cable:

Physical mic ──┬─────────────────────────────────────────► Handy (your real mic — never touched)
               │
               └─►[Windows "Listen to this device"]─► CABLE Input ─► CABLE Output ─► Teams / Zoom / Discord
                                                          ▲
                                       attenuated while Ctrl+Space is held

• Handy reads your real microphone directly, so dictation always works.
• Call apps read CABLE Output.
• HandyMute continuously bridges your real mic into the cable (it sets up Windows' "Listen to this device" for you).
• While Ctrl+Space is held, it lowers the cable's volume (per-session, so VB-Cable can't ignore it) to the level you chose, and dims every output device. On release, it restores both.

The keyboard hook, the audio control, and the bridge setup are all done in-process; the only external piece is the VB-CABLE driver (a virtual sound card can't be created from user space).

Why a cable at all? Windows' per-app capture mute isn't isolated — muting the call app's mic also muted Handy. The cable physically separates the two consumers. (On Linux, PulseAudio/PipeWire does isolate per-app capture, so the Linux port doesn't need a cable.)

Linux (X11)

HandyMute runs natively on Linux with zero audio setup — no virtual cable, no Sound-settings fiddling.

Build it:

sudo apt-get install -y libx11-dev libxtst-dev libgtk-3-dev \
    libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev
./build_linux.sh   # -> dist/handymute

While Ctrl+Space is held, HandyMute lowers the capture-stream volume of every app reading your mic except Handy (so teammates hear your chosen level, default silent) and dims your default output. It speaks the PulseAudio protocol, so it works on both PipeWire and PulseAudio systems. The Control Center and tray behave as on Windows. Phase 1 targets X11; Wayland global-hotkey support is planned.

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Building from source

Requires Go 1.21+ on Windows.

# tray app (silent) + console build (logs to a window, for debugging)
go build -trimpath -ldflags="-H windowsgui -s -w" -o dist\handymute.exe .\cmd\handymute
go build -trimpath -o dist\handymute-console.exe .\cmd\handymute

• The Windows manifest is compiled in via cmd/handymute/rsrc.syso (committed). To regenerate it after editing cmd/handymute/app.manifest:

  go install github.com/akavel/rsrc@latest
  rsrc -manifest cmd\handymute\app.manifest -o cmd\handymute\rsrc.syso

• The Control Center UI is cmd/handymute/controlcenter.html (embedded). It renders in WebView2 (the runtime ships with Windows 11; the Evergreen runtime installs it on Windows 10).

Building the installer

Install Inno Setup 6, then:

& "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Programs\Inno Setup 6\ISCC.exe" handymute.iss
# -> dist\HandyMute-Setup.exe

Command-line flags

handymute.exe also supports (used by the installer/uninstaller):

Flag	Action
-install / -uninstall	add / remove the start-at-login registry entry
-setup-bridge / -remove-bridge	enable / disable the mic→CABLE Input "Listen" pass-through (needs admin)

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Roadmap

• Wayland global-hotkey: native Wayland hotkey monitoring (currently X11-only via X RECORD).
• Optional click-away-to-dismiss for the panel
• Acrylic/blur background for the Control Center

Contributions welcome — the code is split into a shared core plus per-OS backends. See docs/PORTING.md for the exact contract a new platform implements.

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License

MIT. VB-CABLE is donationware by VB-Audio and is not bundled — the installer downloads it from the official site at install time. See vb-audio.com/Cable for its terms.